On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:25:04 GMT, James Sweet wrote:
Take extra care to get the vent right, a gas leak you'll smell, a
water leak you'll see, but an exhaust leak will just kill you.

Hi everyone,

Please take a look at the photos uploaded earlier today.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnaohl/

Let's learn from this half-day effort replacing the water heater.
We had to make a whole bunch of compromises we had not planned on!
Would our final work pass your inspection?
Why or why not (let's learn from this)?

By the way, just as you guys predicted:
- The drain valve snapped off while the tank was full of hot water
- The plumbing was corroded and broke in multiple places
- The water heater (still full of hot water) tipped over on us
- The anode had dissolved away to the bare steel rod
- The galvanized plumbing was almost completely clogged with rust
- The plumbing retrofit for the much larger heater was difficult
- The dialectric fittings and check valves were useless
etc.

And, a few things you guys didn't predict:
- We found an ancient machete hidden behind the water heater!
- Trying to save the box to put the old heater in isn't worth it
- The cold water leaked due to thread corrosion even tightly screwed on
- Hot water leaked back into the heater when the cold water was shut
- The overflow pipe wasn't installed yet due to a question for you
- We loosened sandy sediment which clogged our showerheads
etc.

Now that we're done, we have MORE QUESTIONS to ask (and hopefully we can
all get the answers together).

Take a look at the photos uploaded earlier today:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnaohl/

Let's learn from this half-day job.
Would this hot water heater R&R pass your inspection?
Why or why not?

Donna & Bill